“There is only one recipe for a best seller and it is a very simple one,” wrote [https://lithub.com/ian-fleming-explains-how-to-write-a-thriller/] Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond. “You have to get the reader to turn over the page.” Even with the right elements for a thriller—an “unmannered prose

Agnes de Mille left the company performing Rodeo, her landmark ballet, to choreograph a musical on Broadway. Months later, she had the opportunity to see how the show was doing in her absence. What she saw horrified her: “It was unrecognizable,” she wrote. Without her presence to keep the dancers

I used to get hung up on technique. As a theater major in college, I expected to be taught how to put on a show, soup to nuts. Build a stage like this, lights go here and here, tell the actors to do this, and so on. Unlike my High

Though he was operating within a tight timeframe and a limited budget, Brian Eno conducted many sonic experiments during the making of Another Green World. To me, this is pretty admirable considering the exorbitant cost of a day in the recording studio. Rather than just hand the musicians a fixed

A friend who reads the newsletter recommended Geeta Dayal’s entry in the 33 1/3 series on Brian Eno’s Another Green World [https://bookshop.org/books/brian-eno-s-another-green-world/9780826427861]. I didn’t know the album, but Dayal’s book, he wrote, is “not just about the recording but about

When I’m established, when I’m recognized, when I’m financially secure, when I’m famous, when I have a thousand followers—ten thousand—a hundred thousand. Then! Then I’ll put in the work. Then I’ll do it for real. When the time comes, I’ll be

Mathematician Dan Rockmore, who, judging from all the bodybuilding and powerlifting in his essay in the New Yorker [https://www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-inquiry/the-myth-and-magic-of-generating-new-ideas] , must be a pretty “swole” for a mathematician—just Googled him, he’s not—uses exercise to spark ideas, as when he and his colleagues

The kids and I have been laying down tracks for an album during quarantine, my daughter providing lyrics and vocals, and my son playing guitar. Music production isn’t my area of expertise, but GarageBand makes it pretty easy to assemble something coherent and euphonious. And, despite its shallow learning

Part of you thinks that you just need to get organized. If you only knew where that one outline was, you’d be able to make a little progress. Sure, you found an outline in an old folder, but you’re pretty sure that’s not the most up-to-date version.

If you’re stuck, you probably just need something to work with. Start somewhere. Get anything down. The mind can work with anything: “That isn’t right. But you know what might be…” Nothing, on the other hand, is paralyzing. You can’t get anything done with nothing. The blank